Abstract
The city of Cologne is, like Frankfurt/Main, Munich and Stuttgart, one of the German cities with high shares of ethnic minorities. In this paper, ethnic segregation in Cologne is analysed for three points in time: 1984, 1989 and 1994. One of the main conclusions is that segregation is declining for many groups, indicating a process of spatial dispersion across the city. 'New' immigrants, however, tend to be more segregated than 'older' groups. Economic conditions seem to be one of the crucial explaining elements. They influence the extent and development of segregation patterns directly, as well as indirectly.